Disposable service articles for food and drink have been developed to provide convenience for consumers. Food is sometimes sold in disposable containers from grocery stores and restaurants, and many different disposable food and drink service articles are available for use by consumers for the convenience of serving food and drinks without having to clean and care for permanent service items. Fast food establishments offer food and drink “to go” to consumers, and such products are almost always provided in some sort of disposable container. Paper service articles have been around for a long time, but suffer in general as to durability. Plastic articles have also been developed for better durability, but such plastics add to the amount of plastic waste to be dealt with either through disposal or recycling.
In the case of providing food and drink service to a large group of people at an event or the like, such as by a catering service, it can be more convenient to set out portions of food as provided on a disposable service item. With most foods, it is also desirable to conveniently provide one or more types of utensils nearby the food and service items. Problems can occur in coordinating the provision of the utensils and the food service items by either proximity or by quantity. Moreover, with unpackaged utensils set out for picking by the consumers, the utensils are potentially handled by many different consumers providing less sanitary conditions than individual packaged utensils.
At reception type events, it is common for consumers to browse and choose food items while walking about the reception and socializing with others. Thus, the consumers carry food about on a food service item while also potentially needing and using utensils. This can be problematic in how to store used or unused utensils while socializing with others. Consumers commonly store one or more utensils within a pocket coat, purse or the like until they are needed, but that is not an option once the utensil has been used. Other than setting used utensils on the food service item with remaining food or setting down the food service item and utensils, it is difficult to interact with others, such as to greet another by shaking hands and the like.
Food presentation can also be important in the food service industry. In catering certain events, for example weddings and the like, it may be undesirable to present food on disposable articles. But in many events, getting food to a large number of people efficiently necessitates the use of disposable items. Such service situations can include where food is sold individually to consumers or where food items are set out for the choosing by consumers, such as at a reception type event. It is very desirable in both of these situations to present the food in a manner appealing to the consumer. In the case of fast food service, where presentation is not always as important, certain items like deserts or the like might be preferred to be served in a more elegant or novelty way.